


Tony Stark Bingo

by StrangeMischief



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2020-10-26 10:34:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20740808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeMischief/pseuds/StrangeMischief
Summary: All my bingo fills in one spot. All of them are exactly 100 words.





	Tony Stark Bingo

**Author's Note:**

> As always, enjoy :3

_ A1: Alien Planet _

Titan was burnt umber, listless marigold, and dying auburn. It was chaffing wind, searing heat, and barren air. And one would think, being so distanced from Earth, Tony would find Titan distinctly alien.

But he didn’t. It wasn’t. Titan was frighteningly similar to Earth – to Afghanistan.

How fitting was Titan as an end? A place so parallel to where it began? How ironic was it? To be here again? For in a desert, auburn, and searing, Tony had risen, hoping to find another way. And in a desert, listless and empty, he had fallen, realizing there had never been one.

_ A2: Rhodey’s Comic Suit _

“I want a new paint job.”

Tony looked up from his pool-side lounge chair, tilting his wine-colored sunglasses down to peer up at his best friend. “No returns. No refunds.”

“Tones,” Rhodey sighed, gesturing at his red, white, and blue suit. “It’s a _bit _much, don’t you think? Besides, this is more Steve’s color scheme than mine. Three people have already confused me with him!”

Tony sat up and peered closely at his friend. “Really? _You? _They confused _you_ with Steve? Did they not notice that you’re about a foot shor-”

“Finish that,” Rhodey warned, “and I’ll star-spangle your ass.”

_ A3: Free Space _

Tony woke in a hospital bed. His legs were in casts. His back ached. His head _throbbed. _And beside him there was…a man. He was familiar in the way that made that made Tony’s brain itch and his brows furrow in frustration because he _knew _but just couldn’t…recall.

This man, this stranger, certainly seemed to think he knew Tony. “You’re awake!” he gasped joyfully, shaky hands enveloping Tony’s the moment his eyes opened.

Tony bit his lip and shifted back. “Who’re you?”

The unknown man’s face crumbled and Tony, though he didn’t know why, felt like the cruelest bastard alive.

_ A4: Tall Tale _

“I heard he stole a warcraft!” the apprentice whispered, emerald eyes shining in awe as they peeked around a weathered column, into the training courtyard. “A huge ship like the Death Star! And that when he got back, he blasted Thanos so hard there was nothing to bury!”

“Oh, you’re lying!” rebuked the novice hotly. “There’s no way they could have covered that up!”

\---

“Going to correct them?” asked the taller, blue robes drifting lightly in the brisk Nepalese breeze.

“No,” the shorter chuckled, chocolate eyes, full of mirth, barely visible behind darkened shades. “Let them have their stories.”

_ A5: Interrupted by Super Villains _

“Sir?”

Tony jerked at the unexpected interruption, dropping Stephen’s nude form just a hair shy of their bed. “Not now, FRIDAY,” Tony snapped, helping his lover from the floor. “Mute.”

“Requested overridden,” the AI replied smoothly. “User: Barton. Rationale: You can bang later. Two jackasses in spandex are whipping our asses out here.”

Tony growled and snatched his abandoned t-shirt off the floor. “_Again?_”

Stephen gave a resigned sigh and reached for his robes. “Again.”

Tony snatched the navy garments and pointed back to the bed. “Not you. I want you right there, _ready, _when I get back. This time we _will _finish this.”

_ K1: Coffee Shop _

How easy it could have been to walk up and say, “Hi.” How simple it would have been to smile cautiously and ask, “Is this seat taken?” How soothing it might have been, to wrap his singed fingertips around his steaming paper cup and ground himself as he got lost in endless sea-green eyes.

Would it have mattered? Tony wondered. Would anything have changed? Would the strange doctor still become the man before him today? Ragged and scarred and cloaked in red?

How different might it have been if he had lingered a moment longer in Starbucks that one day?

_ K2: Dark Alleys _

Stephen had lived in the city more than long enough to know that any and all dark alleyways were to be strictly avoided. Poorly lit, filled with trash, rats, the occasional murder victim, and swarming with diseases of all sorts, they were no place for _anyone, ever. _Even now, as a sorcerer who could easily incapacitate the unsavory types who tended to linger in such dark, damp spaces, Stephen had no interest nor desire to enter one.

That was until Tony had yanked him in roughly, huskily whispered, “Oh, but dark alleyways have such _potential,_” and dropped to his knees.

_ K3: Warm and Fuzzy Feelings _

Tony leant forward on the kitchen counter, resting his head in his palms and grinning like a wild fool as his chocolate eyes bore into Stephen’s.

Stephen felt the tips of his ear redden under Tony’s attention, and he shoved another stack of dinnerware into the lukewarm dishwater, hoping to distract himself with his task. “And what are you smiling about?” he teased, elbow deep in dishwater.

“You,” Tony mumbled back factually, eyes, filled with adoration, never straying from Stephen’s face.

Stephen snorted in disbelief and threw a handful of suds at Tony. “Why’s that?”

“Because I love you, Stephen.”

_ K5: Asgard _

“Well?” Tony asked, waving impatiently at his freshly painted canvas. “What do you think?”

  
“I think,” Stephen began slowly, “that painting is _not _the activity you need to take up in retirement, Tony. What is it supposed to be?” he asked, trying, and failing, to hide a smirk. “The gates of Hell?”

“No!” Tony rebuked hotly. His cheeks and ears pinkened in embarrassment, contrasting nicely with the streaks of red and orange paint that marked his face. “I think it’d be obvious what I was trying to paint.”

“And what, pray tell, is that?”

Tony hesitated. “It’s…destruction? The destruction…of …Asgard!”

_ K5: Pining _

Tony wondered if this was what it felt to mourn the death of a lover. To be forced to love something from afar. To ache for a touch, a whisper, or a gaze that would never come. To continue on living without truly being alive.

Tony grieved like a widower his spouse’s departed soul, but his love was not gone. The other half of his mournful soul hadn’t been swept onto Death’s door. He was there, a vision of life and _happiness _as he sent azure butterflies to chase Peter off the ceiling, oblivious to how much Tony loved him.

_ R1: Cuddling _

“You’re a tough guy to figure out,” Tony mumbled softly from Stephen’s chest.

Stephen’s arms flexed around Tony’s smaller frame as he shifted to pull him closer. “How so?”

“Well, for starters, I never pinned you for a cuddler.”

Stephen sputtered, scandalized, and tilted his head down to give Tony an outraged glare. “This is not…_cuddling._”

“Really?” Tony laughed, wiggling teasingly in Stephen’s caging arms. “What would you call it, then?”

Stephen was quiet for a moment as he struggled to form a response. “Stealing your body heat,” he finally grumbled. “Nothing else.”

“Ah, of course,” Tony grinned. “Nothing else.”

_ R2: Aged Tony _

“Pepper always did say my looks would fade,” Tony chuckled, smoothing his silver hair. “Didn’t think I’d live to see it.”

“I can’t believe you’d say that,” Stephen huffed, looking affronted by the suggestion.

“I can’t believe it doesn’t bother you,” Tony scoffed, bitterly, eyeing Stephen’s hair, unchanged from the time they met. “People probably think I’m your sugar daddy.”

Stephen sighed and straightened his husband’s askew reading glasses. “There were so many other ways things could have been, Tony…” The sorcerer trailed off, sea green eyes growing glum. “I’d rather have you grey and blind than not at all.”

_ R3: Workshop Troubles _

Tony couldn’t work in the lab during the day. It was congested with visitors, phone calls, and emails. The sun was too bright. The birds chirped too loud. Wires ended up crossed in his distraction while fine circuits were crushed in his rage. Tony couldn’t _stand _working during the day…

…but _lived_ for the night.

When the lab was cast in moonlight, his greatest ideas were born. When the stars twinkled overhead, the most difficult coding bleed from his fingertips with ease. The phone was silent, his inbox unchanging. The outside world was finally serene…

…and Tony’s was finally chaotic.

_ R4: Zombie _

“When did you last sleep?”

Tony hummed thoughtfully and spared Stephen a glance. “Depends. What day is today?”

“Thursday.” Stephen tone made it clear he was unimpressed with his boyfriend’s antics. “Come to bed.”

“No way, you’re shitting me,” Tony scoffed. “It was just Thursday a few days ago.”

“It tends to be a reoccurring event,” Stephen remarked dryly. “Now, _please _come to bed. You look one step away from turning into a zombie, and I’ve had my fill of those this week.”

“Okay, okay. I’ll come up. But you should know I’d be the hottest zombie you’ve ever seen.”

_ R5: Iron Dad _

“I would love to bring you both,” Peter began carefully, “but I can only bring _one _and-”

“Pete,” Tony interrupted, “before you finish that sentence, I want you to consider this: I am a billionaire. A _billionaire._”

Stephen scoffed and elbowed his way around Tony. “I’m the protector of this entire _planet,_ and it’s reality.”

Peter’s eyes flicked anxiously between the two men. “Okay, but I need someone with a more…traditional job…”

“Aha! Of course, it’s me. I’m practically his cool dad,” Tony teased Stephen, grinning victoriously.

“…which is why I'm bringing Aunt May to Career Day,” Peter finished hesitantly.

_ S1: Going on Vacation Together _

“You know what?” Tony mumbled, eyes never straying from Stephen’s cheekbone.

Stephen flinched as Tony dropped a dollop of burn cream across the nasty wound on his cheek. “What?”

“We should go somewhere. Take a vacation. Just you and me somewhere far away. Maybe then we’ll be able to make it a week without one of use nearly melting our face off.”

Stephen laughed softly and closed his eyes, enjoying the sensation of Tony’s warm fingers smoothing cool gel across his face. “Where would we go?”

“Wherever you want to,” Tony replied flippantly. “But…Europe _does _have some _lovely _nude beaches.”

_ S2: Rhodes Hugging Tony _

Tony would never forget that desert. He could hide the cave in the depths of his mind, conceal the painful memory of Yinsen behind a curtain, and sweep the never-ending sea of guilt and self-blame under the rug.

But Tony would never forget the desert.

The heat still beat down on his back. The sand still scorched his feet. His eyes burnt. His skin stung. His legs ached. It was too much then, and too much now. But he would never forget.

Because there, just over that last dune, had been Rhodes’ waiting arms.

And Tony could never forget that.

_ S3: Maria Stark _

“What do you think?”

“I have no idea,” Stephen admitted. “I didn’t think it’d _ever _happen, let alone so quickly.” The sorcerer fisted his quivering fingers in the dark material of his sweater, visibly unnerved. “What about something floral? Lily? Rose?”

Tony shook his head. “Something with meaning. A family name maybe? What was your mother’s name?”

Stephen grimaced. “Beverly.”

Tony snorted and cast a look of pity at the squirming pink bundle on the other side of the viewing window. “We can’t do that to her.”

“Name her after your mother,” Stephen suggested.

“Maria, then? Maria Stark?”

“Maria Stark-_Strange._”

_ S4: Missing You _

“I miss watching you read in bed,” Tony mumbled into the wind. “I miss you dragging me out of the lab. I miss the _unbelievable _amounts of sarcasm. I miss it all.”

Eyes, swarming with untold pain, dropped down the smooth stone that marked the head of the single plot. A generous number of forget-me-nots and orchids were carefully placed at the foot of the stone. The sweet scent of the orchids reminded Tony of running soapy hands through silver-streaked hair. The magnificent blue of the forget-me-nots conjured images of similarly colored eyes sparkling with mirth.

“I miss you, Stephen.”

_ S5: Sharing A Bed _

At first, it was awkward. Neither one had slept in the same bed as another person in _years. _Tony rolled around a bit too much. Stephen somehow would manage to steal all the blankets over to his side. Tony woke in cold sweats, phantom pains running across his chest. Stephen jerked awake with Dormammu’s name on his lips.

But then, Tony started unconsciously rolling into Stephen’s side. Stephen starting reflexively tugging Tony into the folds of his blanket cocoon. Stephen traced soothing patterns on Tony’s chest. Tony whispered comforting words in Stephen’s ear.

Suddenly, neither would sleep any other way.

_ T1: Victorious _

Tony Stark had hauled his father’s moderately impressive tech business to the forefront of the industry. He was a genius, (former) playboy, billionaire, philanthropist. He had escaped a terror cell in a suit made of scrap metal. He had saved the country; the world; the _universe._

Tony had so many reasons to have felt triumphant, but all of this was easily dashed away in a single moment. It all meant nothing now. Because when he slid that wedding band over a trembling finger? When he kissed the man who was now his husband?

Tony Stark-Strange had never known such victory.

_ T2: Magic _

Tony Stark considered himself an expert in magic. After all, he saw it every day. But it wasn’t the magic one would assume he did. Not the glowing mandalas. Not the swirling amber portals.

No, Tony Stark saw magic in the way Stephen Strange turned a book’s page with the utmost care. He saw magic deep in the endless turquoise pools that were Stephen’s eyes. There was magic in the tantalizing way Stephen’s dark hair drifted in the breeze, and in the mesmerizing sound of his rich, smooth-like-honey laugh.

Tony Stark saw magic in Stephen Strange and everything he did.

_ T3: Fighting Together _

It had been so long since Tony had fought side by side with someone that was so in sync with his own fighting style that by the time Stephen came along, he had forgotten how _amazing _it really was.

When Tony would come in hard with sudden, brute force, Stephen would draw forth slow-building and intricate spells. If Tony would pull left, Stephen would intuitively swing right. One would attack from the front, and the other was instantly striking from the back.

“You two really complement each other,” Bruce remarked one day.

Stephen had pinkened, and Tony grinned winningly. “Perfectly.”

_ T4: Teammates _

Peter had called them – himself, Tony, Stephen, and Wong – the Fearless Four. He had even managed to reprogram FRIDAY to refer to them as such when sending out a security threat notice. Stephen sneered, Tony smirked, and Wong rolled his eyes, but all would admit the truth: it was nice to be part of a team.

\---

_“Stephen! Stephen wake up!”_

\---

FRIDAY sent out the security threat alert, calling for the Fearless Four.

Wong’s magic rippled, sending books flying from their shelves.

Peter chocked back a sob and pulled his mask into place.

Tony’s glasses shattered in his fist.

_ T5: Abandonment Issues _

When Tony woke, his body was stiff and unmoving, and he had but a sparing awareness of what was going around him. It was too dark to make out anything, and so silent Tony could scarcely hear himself breathe. It was _terrifying, _and, initially, Tony thought he had died and been banished to some empty, desolate hell.

But through the dark silence had come something else. Something warm that wove between his fingers. Something soft that soothed his callouses. Something that quivered, shattering the suffocating stillness.

A hand, that, for a bit, made Tony feel just a little less alone.


End file.
